YCW 2011

Well, lots of people called me crazy last year for going to Young Christians’ Weekend at Silver Dollar City two weeks before I was due with Audrey.  And this year, they called me crazy again for going with the two girls and no Josh!  And, perhaps they were right… it was definitely a little stressful of a weekend, and I’m not sure I was much help on the whole supervising youth front.  But I think they wanted someone along who had been several times before, since Josh obviously wasn’t coming, and Mom couldn’t go, either.  So, along I went, with both girls in tow!  And, really, we had a good time.  The concerts were great, Tenth Avenue North was a band I really wanted to see, and Caleb Rowden led worship Sunday morning, which was cool since he’s a Columbia boy.  For the most part, the girls and I hung by ourselves, with Aunt Ruthie, or with Laney’s friend Clara, and her parents, Betsie and Matt.  It was fun just to get to play, without trying to juggle any grown up rides or anything.  So we ended up having a really good time…

What trip to SDC would be complete without a trip to the “ball place” (aka Geyser Gulch).  It really was fun to have A along on this trip, because she was big enough to play and have fun.

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She looked so big playing with the balls… too bad she kept trying to put them in her mouth!  Purell, anyone?! :)

We also had to check out SDC’s new area for kids, which has a carousel and a tree house.  It’s nice, because the tree house only has two exits, so you can send the kids up there, and not worry about them, because there are workers in the tree house, and they have to come out at a certain spot.  Pretty neat, and Laney seemed to like it.

Laney loved the carousel!

And so did Audrey!  So much so that she wouldn’t sit still long enough for me to take a good picture of her! :)

The new part also had a set of swings just for littler kids… Laney and Clara tried them out right away!

We had absolutely beautiful weather for this YCW, which was nice, since we’ve had not so beautiful weather the last few years!  By afternoon it had really warmed up, enough that the girls and I headed back to Geyser Gulch to play in the water.  It was Audrey’s first introduction to the water mats, and well, she was a FAN!  I felt kind of bad, I was a little worried that she’d get sprayed in the face and be totally unhappy!  But, well, she definitely wasn’t unhappy!  She would crouch down over a hole until it sprayed her (usually in the face) and then she would laugh and grin and head to another hole to repeat the process.  She was absolutely SOAKED in pretty short order!  Good thing I’d brought a change of clothes…

At the beginning, just a little wet on the jeans…

And totally soaked by the end.

Big sis got in on the action, too… she’s always loved the water mats!

My girls… playing together happily.  A moment to savor!

While Laney was napping, we spent a lot of time hanging out in this little area next to Geyser Gulch that is just for toddlers.  It doesn’t have much, just a couple of animals to ride on and a slide.  But all A needs is a slide; she LOVES playing on slides. 

She also loved us rolling a ball down the slide to her, which is what she’s cracking up about in this picture:

Laney even tried a new ride- the little roller coaster in the World’s Fair area.  She was not a fan- we got off and she said “That was NOT very much fun!”  It was pretty funny.  I’m inclined to agree with her, though, because it was awful jerky…

Really, it was a good trip… I am very thankful for Ruthie for spending so much time hanging out with us and helping me get the girls in and out of the van, the park, corralled at the concerts, etc.  But we all had a great time, and we managed to get 30ish kids and 10ish adults to and from SDC without major incident… I’ll call that a successful Young Christians’ Weekend! :)

Speaking of successful… we finally had a successful showing, an offer, and we’re now UNDER CONTRACT on our house!!!  We are so excited, although still really only cautiously optimistic until the home inspector comes and goes!  But if God can bring us the buyer, He can make the home inspection work for us.  We are so thankful for our realtor, Ryan Cunningham, who definitely treated us right this whole time.  And, in the end, it was the realtors who made the deal work- we were kind of at a stand still, and they both offered to give up $1200 of their commission to help us meet in the middle.  Our closing date right now is May 20th, which gives us about 6 weeks to figure out where we’re moving TO! :)  I’m headed to Etown next weekend so we can do some house shopping.  Hopefully the right house will fall in our laps! 

Anyway, so a fun trip and an exciting new development on the whole move-to-KY front!  I am still looking for a job, I’ve applied at several districts around Etown, and I’m sure God will provide the job just as He has everything else in this crazy journey!